James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Two weeks from today, an important Dinotopia painting will be put to auction at Bonhams in New York.

In the last decade and a half, I have released only a very few Dinotopia originals. I have wanted to keep the body of work together to be available for museum exhibitions. I’ve decided to start offering some pieces to be auctioned each year.

The painting is called “Festival Day,” published in Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara. The scene shows an outdoor festival in the village of Jorotongo. Bix hangs out with kids playing lawn bowling and circle games, while singers belt out madrigals near an Einiosaurus, and a Stegosaurus awaits a game of “bucktail,” where he tosses teenagers into haystacks from his spike tail. To the left, the elders enjoy an outdoor banquet. The painting is an example of the mixture of cultures and the mood of playfulness that I enjoyed creating for Dinotopia.

The 12x18 inch oil painting is matted and framed was part of the museum exhibition that traveled to France and England a few years ago. I’m thrilled that it will be part of Bonham’s illustration sale in the company of artists I greatly admire, such as E.H. Shepard, Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak, and Garth Williams.

7 comments:

Mr Gurney--Those houses also showed up in Dinotopia, in the swamp village just before the crew arrived at waterfall city. I remember copying the houses into my sketchbook--I was 11 at the time. So I wonder if you could share which architecture inspired these longhouses, and what made you think to connect them with a swamp landscape. --Joshua

Joshua, For the architecture in the swamp village and along the Dragonfly coast, I was inspired by some of the traditional houses from the Toraja district of Sulawesi Island in Indonesia--as well as other places. I thought some of Dinotopia's settlers may have come from there, and would have been good at building from local materials.

Best of luck with the auction. This post made me curious about the status of future Dinotopia books. I don't know if you realize it or not, but as much as you talk about art here, you pretty much never mention what you are working on at the moment ;)

i'm glad you keep the originals together to exhibit. it is really thrilling to see your work in person.

i've also wondered if there will be a permanent gurney / dinotopia gallery or museum in the future (like frazetta or rockwell)? i always guessed that is why you kept the work together? if this is the case i think its a really wonderful idea!

Michael, you're right: I don't mention all the projects I'm working on at a given time. At the moment I'm doing some work for an entertainment company on a confidential basis, and I always have several book ideas in various stages of development. They need to stay fluid in my head, and I find talking about them sometimes solidifies things that need to stay in flux. Also, a lot of the stuff I spend time doing, like home maintenance or splitting firewood, is either off-topic or too boring.

The blog will be the first place I make announcements, so stay tuned.

SuperV--no plans now for a permanent home--better to keep the paintings traveling.